Visa free travel: A nation’s psychological mess

Dec 14, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – People ask me all the time, in person, through email correspondence, and in the call-in section of the Gildarie-Freddie Kissoon Show why I do not criticise the government.

This question will not go way because people have put me in a fixed mode. I must be anti-government. They know Frederick Kissoon has been a demonstrator against power for decades, so even with the flow of dialectics that humans cannot predict I must remain in that mode.

I have publicly offered my reasons for my understanding of the Ali presidency on this page several times. I repeat it again. I see his presidency as going in directions that I believe necessitate my support. But in bits and pieces here and there, I have offered other reasons. One of them is that I do not feel mentally comfortable saying and doing things against the government that put me in the category of people whose politics I find absolutely abominable because it based on pure dislike for a government that intellectual arguments cannot justify.

This sphere includes not only the two opposition parties, PNC and AFC but also the media, civil society groups, certain individual among others. I read an editorial in the Stabroek News of December 10, 2022 titled, “Caution needed on ‘visa-free’ push” and after digesting that reasoning, I know where I want my politics to go. I want it to be far away from the genre of the people that wrote that opinion-piece.

Let me quote the opening lines: “The government would be wise to tread carefully in its push for “visa free” travel to various developed countries.” This newspaper along with other media houses, civil society groups, certain individuals have adopted a fixation since the Ali presidency came into being in August 2020. It is that the government must consult the citizenry and seek approval for important policies that have formidable consequences for the country.

Both independent dailies, the Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News have given extensive coverage to a group named Article 13. This civil society entity insists that article 13 in the constitution compels the government to consult with the people of Guyana before it decides on policies.

In the same breath in that editorial, the Stabroek News wants the government to have the sole discretion in deciding if Guyanese must enjoy visa-free travel to developed countries. Just read the opening line- “government must be cautious.” Why should the government be cautious about a policy that is basic to modern living in the world that people should enjoy-travel without visa hassles and visa nightmares?

Why should the government be cautious and decide on a course of action that the Guyanese people do not want? The Guyanese people in any poll would not frown on accepting visa-free travel to all the countries in the world. No human in a survey would reject visa-free travel. John Lennon’s phenomenal global hit song, “Imagine” resonated with the peoples of the world because it imagined a world without borders. The motto of the Olympics is for people to get to know other people from the countries and cultures that make up the world.

Do you know the countless millions of people in the US that are worse off than countless Third World citizens in terms of personal income, yet low-lives in the US can travel to any country visa-free but people with good jobs and a decent standard of living in many Third World countries are denied visas to the US, Canada and elsewhere.

I know one of the most sought after vehicle mechanics in this country with a high source of income was refused a Canadian visa even though his passport had a ten-year multi-entry America visa. That was cruel and repugnant.

Do you know consular officers at the US Embassy within seconds deny Guyanese a visitor’s permit without even looking at their applications. That is coming from a country that sees itself as the guardian of human rights around the world. On the opposite spectrum, low-lives American can just hop on a plane without a visa and come to Guyana.

So the Stabroek News wants the government to have the jurisdiction in deciding which country Guyana should have visa-free facilities with. Then come tomorrow, the very newspaper will exclaim with uncontrollable decibels that the government must consult the people. Here now right in front of your eyes is the reason for a changed Frederick Kissoon. For over 50 years my politics contained long and sustained relationship with people I no longer care for. I am not going back to that world. My psyche would not allow me to.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)